Puzzled and perplexed: “undecided” voters

I’ve been doorbelling and phone-calling local voters in an effort to determine who are “our people” – folks who will vote for Democrats and therefore need to gotten out to vote (or in my county which only votes by mail, to mail in their ballots).

While many folks simply may not want to disclose to a stranger which way they plan to vote, I’ve talked to a bunch of people who say they’re still undecided, and need to “study up a bit more…”

My question is this: have they been living under a rock for the past 18 months? We’ve been bombarded in every possible media format with candidate and economic news. Everyone is talking about the election, even my hairdresser and my mail man. How can anyone still be puzzled about who to vote for? Or do these folks just like all the attention they get from pollsters and GOTV activists like me?

I look at these people and can’t quite believe that they exist. Are they professional actors? I wonder. Or are they simply laymen who want a lot of attention?

To put them in perspective, I think of being on an airplane. The flight attendant comes down the aisle with her food cart and, eventually, parks it beside my seat. “Can I interest you in the chicken?” she asks. “Or would you prefer the platter of shit with bits of broken glass in it?”

To be undecided in this election is to pause for a moment and then ask how the chicken is cooked.

Considering all the palaver going on about whether or not one’s vote will count, I’m more pleased than ever that I decided to move back to Oregon 12 years ago. I have to vote by mail. There is no other way to cast my ballot. Granted, I don’t get to go to the precinct, stand in line, receive my ballot after signing my name on the rolls, go behind a screen and either punch a ballot or mark it with indelible ink. In Oregon, I do know my ballot will be received in the Marion County court house to be counted. It’s really a shame more states don’t follow Oregon’s example. Pity the poor folks whose only choice is to press a computer screen and watch their vote for their Democratic candidate change before their eyes to the to the name of the Republican candidate. Scream all they may, someone will tell them they made the mistake, not the machine. If Obama loses because of fraud, I’m going to join the hew and cry of rebellion. They can’t steal the election twice and get away with it!